The effect of the superordinate concept and presentation form of examples on concept learning

In the research reported here, the effects of the presentation of the more general (superordinate) concept on the attainment of basic concepts, and the effects of two different forms of example presentation on concept learning were studied. In one condition, examples were presented as line drawings on a microcomputer monitor. In the other condition the example was presented ‘real life’ on a video monitor. It was found that presenting the superordinate concept reduced the time needed to study new information. However, it had no effect on the retention test classification scores. The realistic, interactive video presentation of examples led to better classification scores on the retention test. This study shows that computer based instruction in combination with interactive video are useful instructional means.